Chance encounter in a sunny garden
creates panic among colony of ants

WHEN you are in the garden or in the countryside it is usually very
easy to see ants - or you might tread on them and not even see them.

Sometimes you might see a single insect, or a column of them, or
disturb a nest of them. Last week it was time for a swarm.

The sun was shining, it was nice and warm, and single ants were
encountered from time to time.

During a spot of gardening a stone was dislodged, and to and behold a
nest of ants was discovered.

Large cocoons formed by the larvae were visible in great numbers but
the ants went into a panic routine and started moving the cocoons around
so that it was impossible to count them.

There were dozens of them - hundreds of them perhaps. Reading the
books, it was possible for such a colony to have thousands of residents.
But I shall never know just how many there were.

There is a huge family of insects called the Hymenoptera - a family
comprised of about one hundred thousand species.

They can be very varied in size, appearance and habits, but generally
they can be sub-divided into two fairly well defined sub-orders.

The descriptive family name derives from the Greek word 'hymen', which
means a membrane.

TWO

The family has usually two pairs of membranous wings. The two
sub-orders are 'Symphyta', insects which have no defined waists, and 'Apocrita',
in which there is a very narrow 'waist' between the thorax and the
abdomen.

So that makes it all easier for you, you can now break down the hundred
thousand species into two groups.

The ants disturbed under a stone were black garden ants. These would be
our most common ant, an ant which has the reputation of entering houses in
search of sugary food, for it has a sweet tooth.

They live in gardens in town and country, and may be also found in
fields, woods and heaths.

As well as nesting under a stone, they will go under plants providing
they are well hidden.

They might prefer an old log under which to live, or if you had flag
stones for a garden path they might very well take up residence under
them.

If you were to lift up such a flag, you would see the walkways they dig
out for themselves.

These particular creatures started to panic, for within seconds they
were scurrying hither and thither, carrying off cocoons to a safer
location.

Such a place would be under a nearby rock, as long as it afforded them
protection from their enemies.

Many insects like ants, and many birds like ants, and I do not mean as
creatures to be admired except as food.

The black garden ant comes in three shapes and sizes. First, there is
the big mammy of them all, the queen ant. Her body length would be about
one and a quarter to one and a third centimetres long, and she would have
two pairs of wings.

Worker

The other female of the species is the worker, a wingless creature who
works, obviously, and who would be not much more than half a centimetre
long.

Then there is the male, who can fly with his two pairs of wings, and
would be in size something between the worker and the queen. He would be
maybe three quarters of a centimetre long.

The ant family is a very large family, numbering about one tenth of the
Hymenoptera over the whole world.

We would not have an exact figure, as new types of ants are being found
from time to time, and some species would die out because of climatic
change and human-imposed change.

According to the different books you read, there could be as few as
thirty six types of ant in the south of England or there could be as many
as fifty.

Whatever the starting figure is, the numbers decrease as you move
further north and west. Scotland would have the fewest numbers, but Wales
and Ireland would still have fewer types of ant than would be found in the
south of England.

The books give the black garden ant as swarming in the autumn. Perhaps
the good weather in May and June may have brought on early growth, and
this may have something to do with a swarm of ants happening in early
August, but I am really clutching at straws.

What happens is that from one nest of ants will issue a swarm of young
lady ants, ants who have never gallivanted before.

They come out to view the scenery, to admire the talent, as young
ladies have been known to do in the past, and may well continue to do in
the future.

By some magical but unknown means, a nearby nest of ants will send
forth its finest males to have some friendly conversations with the young
ladies.

So you will have a swarm of young ladies and a swarm of young gents in
the air not too far apart.

Of course, the only thing to do in the circumstances is for the ladies
and gents to get together, so they soon form one large swarm. You may well
see such a swarm anywhere about here in the near future.

Well, what happens but a rate of handy marriages are performed, and, as
happens, many ladies will become pregnant. But what else happens - all of
the ladies become widows because the males all die off.

The pregnant ant then finds a suitable site, proceeds to bite off her
wings, or break off her wings.

Some think it is a poor widow's reaction, but it is more practical than
that.

She does not need her wings any more, nor does she need a husband any
more.

She enters the site she has chosen, and in the fullness of time she
lays her eggs.

The first batch of young are fed on her saliva, thereafter the young go
out to forage, return and feed the next brood.

The queen then retires and goes into the business of breeding full
time, while her children feed the other children.

The life of an ant all sounds very pre-destined. But you could say that
the life of all creatures is pre-destined.

Monday 16th to Friday 20th August
Children's Wildlife Hour at 14:30, more from Oxford Island on 02838322205

Saturday 28th August
Butterfly Outing from Cnocagh Monument, east Antrim at 10:30 with Adrian
Kernohan, who will tell you more on 028 9335 5565
Bird Fayre at Tannaghmor Gardens, further information from. Oxford Island
on 028 3832 2205